Gecko Gingrich:I always get confused by the folks opposed - on Biblical grounds - to consuming alcohol, for two reasons:

-One of Jesus' miracles was turning water into wine.-During communion one drinks wine...unless you're Methodist.

To add to your points...If you read Genesis, it states that God created everything, including all the plants and animals, and he specifically created them so man can have dominion over all of them, and all was good. So God must have created the ingredients necessary for beer, wine, vodka, etc., AND he must have created magic mushrooms, peyote, marijuana, etc. If God is all knowing, then he surely must have known that Man would have turned them into alcohol or might have used said plants for drug purposes. And if drug use is evil or bad, God is contradicting himself, because God is all-good. So God can't be all knowing, let alone all-good. In addition, if God is all-powerful, why can't God get rid of Satan for spreading such evil? And if Satan is evil, how can God tolerate that?Also in Genesis, Noah planted grapes and made wine. God didn't smite Noah dead for making wine, so surely God must have allowed for wine to be used, for God is all good and doesn't tolerate bad things, let alone evil. And God didn't smite Noah for getting pissed out of his mind, unconscious drunk, so getting drunk can't be that bad. God also let Lot's daughters get him drunk so they could have sex with him. So alcohol and drunkenness can't be that bad.Given this, if we are to take the Bible literally and we are to assume that God is all good, all powerful, and all knowing, we get a massive contradiction. Drugs and alcohol can't be bad or evil because God created everything, including plants that can be turned into drugs and alcohol; we cannot interpret the Bible literally, as we get contradictions; or God is not all powerful, all knowing, and all good.Then again, logic doesn't work with some people.

So who is worse, a God who creates a species with the intent of giving them the desire to do things that are against the rules he spelled out, rules that if broken will fark them up for eternity or the dude who says, "Hey, this guy gave you these predilections that he's just waiting for you to succumb to and he's really just farking with you". Who would you believe?

When I was a kid in East Tennessee, I lived in a damp county. No liquor/wine stores outside the city of Oak Ridge, no beer sold in groceries, but there was a local beer joint. A cinderblock roadhouse with neon Bud signs in the window. Nobody went there but drunks. The attitude toward alcohol was you were a teetotaller, or a drunk. Nothing in between.